As we approach the last 10 weeks of racing (or 5 real life weeks!), attention is starting to shift from racing to breeding (not forgetting the End of Year Auction for those who didn’t make the grade on the track this year!)
For some this will see many many many hours spent pouring over databases,, analysing figures then inputting the data into highly sophisticated spreadsheets which will hopefully give them the data they want – ie which stallion/mare pairing will result in the next Frankel :)
Others will spend somewhat less time on this, using old fashioned methods such as if I put a 10f dirt mare with a 12f dirt stallion I should get a nice classic distance runner – so basically they are matching like with like.
And then you have the lastminute dot commers – who suddenly freak out at Week 52 realise they havent booked any stallions and just throw names into the spreadsheet and keep everything crossed that they don’t get a 2f dirt mudlark who matures at 6!
But they all have one thing in common – names. That’s right, no matter what method you use to breed your foals at the end of the day they must all race with a name!
In my first year I breed two foals – Skim the Hill and Chaps Gal. The first was a colt by Danehill out of Indian Skimmer so the name is reflective of the breeding. Chaps Gal was a filly by High Chaparral out of Bosra Sham and again the names linked.
After that though as my breeding programme expanded so did my names (much to Laurie’s disgust/amusement in equal parts!). In order to keep track of breeding upwards of 25 foals a year, I devised a system whereby I used a theme – for example one year I used songs by Duran Duran, another was films starring John Wayne – one of my more successful years was using Sherlock Holmes. More recently I have taken inspiration from the books of Jane Austen (these are currently 2yr olds) and my last crop were named after Downton Abbey (both people and places).
Many other players do similar – some stick with movies (been there done that!), songs (copycats!), famous footballers (interesting especially as one is actually a filly!). Some keep with the tradition of using the parents for inspiration.
With upwards of 600 foals born each year though, it is becoming increasingly difficult to use truly original names. When submitting the breeding sheet to Laurie all foals are required to be named. You can cheat and use the same name for both fillies and colts which is quite easy to do if you have to find 50+ names but I still like to try to keep them “sexed” so a filly will be a feminine version of the colts name, ie Mr or Mrs Bennet.
It would seem sensible that before submitting your sheet that names are checked to make sure that they are not already used – but this doesn’t always happen and results in a delay in producing the foals. It takes miliseconds to check the database to see if the name is already used – but some still don’t take that time. The Stud Book also has an issue with apostrophes so when searching DON’T use it just put in the name up to the punctuation ie rather than Missy’s Bridle just put in MISSY.
There are also a few guidelines on the Rules page (see Chapter 9 Breeding) for spelling, length etc. Within reason Laurie allows pretty much anything but historically anything racially offensive (not sure how A Rab got through but it raced for a few seasons before someone decided to take offense….), anything of an overtly sexual nature (Panty Liners didn’t make it!) and anything that when read aloud is just downright rude!! With players from all over the globe that can prove a challenge as what is OK in one country may be received totally different in another.
Another little cheat is players putting an “s” at the end of a name already used or taking out a space, so if there is a horse in the database called High Hope there is nothing stopping you from calling your new foal HIGH HOPES but bearing in mind that when running the races they are done manually it could be the wrong horse is entered (its happened once or twice and then Laurie has to rename one of the horses to ensure it does happen again). Same principle works for BATTLE SHIP which could be used as BATTLESHIP.
At the end of the day there arent really that many rules for us as players to stick to when naming our precious foals but having a care for Laurie when she is entering races should be one of them :) Its also fun to think that if you have a really unusual name to pronounce and that horse qualifies for the Breeders Cup, Laurie may well have to be calling it during our brilliant live BC Skypecast! (So wanted Semidemiquaver to get into the sprint!)
So good luck with your names this year and remember it doesn’t hurt to double triple check the Stud Book to see if that name you adore is already used :) You will be saving yourself and others valuable time by not having your pairing rejected!
As for me – what am I using this year – well that’s for me to know and you to find out :)
For some this will see many many many hours spent pouring over databases,, analysing figures then inputting the data into highly sophisticated spreadsheets which will hopefully give them the data they want – ie which stallion/mare pairing will result in the next Frankel :)
Others will spend somewhat less time on this, using old fashioned methods such as if I put a 10f dirt mare with a 12f dirt stallion I should get a nice classic distance runner – so basically they are matching like with like.
And then you have the lastminute dot commers – who suddenly freak out at Week 52 realise they havent booked any stallions and just throw names into the spreadsheet and keep everything crossed that they don’t get a 2f dirt mudlark who matures at 6!
But they all have one thing in common – names. That’s right, no matter what method you use to breed your foals at the end of the day they must all race with a name!
In my first year I breed two foals – Skim the Hill and Chaps Gal. The first was a colt by Danehill out of Indian Skimmer so the name is reflective of the breeding. Chaps Gal was a filly by High Chaparral out of Bosra Sham and again the names linked.
After that though as my breeding programme expanded so did my names (much to Laurie’s disgust/amusement in equal parts!). In order to keep track of breeding upwards of 25 foals a year, I devised a system whereby I used a theme – for example one year I used songs by Duran Duran, another was films starring John Wayne – one of my more successful years was using Sherlock Holmes. More recently I have taken inspiration from the books of Jane Austen (these are currently 2yr olds) and my last crop were named after Downton Abbey (both people and places).
Many other players do similar – some stick with movies (been there done that!), songs (copycats!), famous footballers (interesting especially as one is actually a filly!). Some keep with the tradition of using the parents for inspiration.
With upwards of 600 foals born each year though, it is becoming increasingly difficult to use truly original names. When submitting the breeding sheet to Laurie all foals are required to be named. You can cheat and use the same name for both fillies and colts which is quite easy to do if you have to find 50+ names but I still like to try to keep them “sexed” so a filly will be a feminine version of the colts name, ie Mr or Mrs Bennet.
It would seem sensible that before submitting your sheet that names are checked to make sure that they are not already used – but this doesn’t always happen and results in a delay in producing the foals. It takes miliseconds to check the database to see if the name is already used – but some still don’t take that time. The Stud Book also has an issue with apostrophes so when searching DON’T use it just put in the name up to the punctuation ie rather than Missy’s Bridle just put in MISSY.
There are also a few guidelines on the Rules page (see Chapter 9 Breeding) for spelling, length etc. Within reason Laurie allows pretty much anything but historically anything racially offensive (not sure how A Rab got through but it raced for a few seasons before someone decided to take offense….), anything of an overtly sexual nature (Panty Liners didn’t make it!) and anything that when read aloud is just downright rude!! With players from all over the globe that can prove a challenge as what is OK in one country may be received totally different in another.
Another little cheat is players putting an “s” at the end of a name already used or taking out a space, so if there is a horse in the database called High Hope there is nothing stopping you from calling your new foal HIGH HOPES but bearing in mind that when running the races they are done manually it could be the wrong horse is entered (its happened once or twice and then Laurie has to rename one of the horses to ensure it does happen again). Same principle works for BATTLE SHIP which could be used as BATTLESHIP.
At the end of the day there arent really that many rules for us as players to stick to when naming our precious foals but having a care for Laurie when she is entering races should be one of them :) Its also fun to think that if you have a really unusual name to pronounce and that horse qualifies for the Breeders Cup, Laurie may well have to be calling it during our brilliant live BC Skypecast! (So wanted Semidemiquaver to get into the sprint!)
So good luck with your names this year and remember it doesn’t hurt to double triple check the Stud Book to see if that name you adore is already used :) You will be saving yourself and others valuable time by not having your pairing rejected!
As for me – what am I using this year – well that’s for me to know and you to find out :)
